Posts by Ben Auxier

It’s not really that we expect that we’ll never change once married. When you look someone in the eyes at the alter and say “I do” to an entire lifetime, you have to be imagining the older years, the slower ones, the ones that are hopefully very content but likely a bit less intense. Still,...

According to Brides.com (and they should know, right?) the term “honeymoon” stems from a Scandinavian tradition in which, during the first month of marriage (the first “moon,”) the couple would drink fermented honey to improve the likelihood that they would conceive a child. Now, I’m no doctor, but I’m pretty sure boozy honey isn’t going...

Once, I was driving down a six-lane highway, going 70+ mph, when suddenly, out of nowhere, one of my tires blew. The car was now far less under my control, skidding and swerving, and I desperately tried to tame it just long enough to get to the shoulder – across multiple lanes – without hitting...

If there’s one thing about kids that’s charming, it’s how clueless they are. Kids believe all sorts of things, and yeah, they think everything they do is normal – why wouldn’t they? Looking back, though, these 16 people on Reddit realize their little brains were working to make sense of a world beyond their comprehension....

Hanging on my wall to the right of me right now is a certificate officially deeming me the winner of a novelty Christmas song writing competition I got at a bar in Chicago. It’s just for fun, but it’s one of those things you kind of treasure just because you know nobody else really has...

I thank God every day that I live in the era of spell check. Otherwise I’d have to…check my own spelling. It would never work. No one would ever communicate with me. I’d be alone, in a corner, eating crackers. But even spell check can’t always save us from ourselves, especially when it does battle...

Full disclosure: I’m an empiricist skeptic. I don’t believe in the supernatural, and I think that most things we attribute to it can be boiled down to the uncertain nature of memory, emotional experience, and good ol’ fashioned coincidence. BUT. I’d be absolutely lying to you if I told you I didn’t get a few...

My experience with the OLD internet was mostly just annoying my sister by tying up the phone line so I could slowly download bad-quality mp3s. Those were the good old days! But a lot has changed since then. Let’s see what Reddit misses: 1. The nerdiness A real high presence of programming stuff, STEM stuff etcetera....

When I first moved to Chicago, two guys come to my door explaining something about how our energy company was rebranding or something and I needed to just sign something so they could start the new service which was better yada yada and just sign it, ok? It wasn’t until about an hour later that...

There’s usually a huge dramatic scene in any legal drama where it all comes together. The big “a ha!” moment. But how does that sort of thing play out in real life? Both lawyers and just folks who had been involved in court cases stepped up to the stand on Reddit to give their testimonies....

When we’re kids, we live in a bubble that’s largely made up of our family. Our parents, our grandparents, our siblings and cousins answer our questions and show us the way the world works. We have no reason to question them, and really no avenue to ask questions, even if we wanted to. Which makes...

It’s really staggering just how much time, money, and labor goes into making a movie. Every minute that passes on the screen of a Hollywood production had an unfathomable amount going into it – and for each of those that make it to the final cut, there are likely two or three that never did....

One of the hardest things about dealing with your mental health struggles is just taking that first step. It can be frightening – intimidating to get out there and even admit to others, or yourself, that you need help, much less go out and get it. And that’s not to mention the potential financial cost....

Mental illness is something that’s getting slowly but surely destigmatized in our society. Not too long ago, to admit to dealing with mental illness issues was to basically telegraph to everyone that you were out of your mind. But now, there’s a growing and more nuanced understanding of how complex the brain is, and how...

Break ups can feel like the end of the world. But often times, some morning, maybe months later, maybe weeks, or even just the next day, you realize that you don’t know why you ever thought that. You think “Hey, maybe this is a good thing. Maybe this is the kick in the pants that...